Mercy Hurd (1616-1693)
}} Biography Indian Plantation Settlement Source: BOOK: History of the Brigham Family p. 27: At the time of Philip's War, they fled to Watertown. On their return, such was the feeling against Indian perfidy, a petition was made to the General Court to divide the 6000-acre " Indian Plantation," a part of and contiguous to Marlboro. Although this was denied, the people, under the leadership of John Brigham, took a deed from the Indians to these lands, 15 July, 1684; and though this was declared " null and void " by the General Court, the white proprietors proceeded to divide and settle these lands, under the supervision of their agent, the said John Brigham, who was their surveyor. In the 1686 list of proprietors we find the names of all the young Brighams, and their alliances, for the first time set out, viz.: Mercy Hunt (former widow of the Puritan Brigham, who before this time had married her third husband, William Hunt, also then dead), Thomas Brigham, John Brigham, Samuel Brigham, John Fay, (husband of Mary Brigham), and William Ward (husband of Haimah Brigham). Feeling uneasy over the adverse action of the Court, in 1683, the proprietors agreed that their grants " shall stand good to all intents and purposes, if they be attested by John Brigham, their Clerk." And so it stood, until, after a generation, having acquired title by possession, the General Court confirmed it. p57: NOTE 4.—SALE BY HEIRS OF THOMAS^ BRIGHAM, 1681 We Thomas Brigham, John Brigham, Samuel Brigham & William Ward, all of Marlbury in the County of Middlesex, Husbandmen, for & in consideration of fifteen pounds of currant money of New England, by us already received of Nicholas Fessenden of Cambridge in the same county, Glover . . . sold . . . unto said Nicholas Fessenden a platt of meadow & swamp lying in Cambridge bounds, conteyning about ten acres, as it is stated in the town book, be it more or less bounded, the above Nicholas Fessenden Southerly, Monotoma River westerly, the great swamp easterly, formerly in the possession of Edward Senr . . . In witness whereof we the abovesd Thomas Brigham, Jno Brigham, Samuell Brigham, & William Ward and or wives Mary & Sarah Brigham with Hannah Ward in acknowledgement of our free consent to this act 6 deed of our husbands & ye utter relinquishing of or Dower right in the above granted ... ye 27tii day of ye lOt^i m the year of o' Lord God . . . 1681. (scale) Thomas Brigham. John Brigham (seale) Samuel Brigham (seale) William Ward (seale) (Mid. Beg., viii. 134.) p72: At a meeting of the proprietors, in December of the same year, continues Hudson, it was voted that Major Hincksman and others "should have the thousand acres of land which was surveyed by John Brigham, and. signified by the plats under his hand, should be recorded in the Company's Book of Records, so that it make a final settlement of all differences about the said land, as to any further claimes." Among the fifty-two proprietors were included John, Samuel and Thomas, sons of Thomas^ Brigham, Mercy Hunt, their mother, and John Fay and William Ward, who had married their sisters... ------- His children: Marriage & Family 1st Marriage: Puritan Brigham Married 1: Thomas Brigham (1603-1653) married by about 1641, Mercy Hurd. Mercy Hurd, b.1615 in England, married Thomas Brigham ca 1637 in Cambridge, Middlesex Co, MA. They had five children: Thomas, John, Mary Fay, Hannah Eames Ward, & Samuel. 2nd Marriage: Edmund Rice She married (2) at Sudbury, 1 Mar 1655/6, Edmund Rice (1594-1663) (with whom she had 2 more children). 3rd Marriage: William Hunt She married (3) Marlborough, blank October or Nov 1664, William Hunt (1605-1677), as his 2nd wife. She was buried at Marlborough, MA 22 Dec 1693. References * Source: Anderson's Grest Migration Study Project. Category:Migrants from England to Massachusetts